(of legislation, chiefly in the US) preventing or controlling
trusts or other monopolies, and so promoting fair competition in
business.

Rachel Sandler

Google has been criticized for
having too much power in the online advertising industry.

VISUAL CHINA GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Topline: Facebook
and Google now face four separate antitrust investigations in a
bipartisan effort to probe whether Big Tech should be broken up,
which includes a sweeping effort against Google from 50 state
attorneys general announced on Monday.

Google is under investigation for allegedly prioritizing its
own services and products in search results and on its Android
operating system, and whether its dominance in the online
advertising industry is unfair to small businesses.

While Facebook has been criticized for its handling of privacy,
misinformation and hate speech, lawmakers are now questioning
whether Facebook has any meaningful competition, especially for
users who want to jump ship due to how much user data the company
collects.

Investigators may also be looking at Facebook’s acquisitions of
WhatsApp and Instagram.

The European Union has already levied fines against Google and
Facebook for anticompetitive practices.

Will Castleberry, Facebook’s vice president of state and local
policy, said in a statement last week that “people have multiple
choices for every one of the services we provide.”

In a blog post, Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president
of global affairs, said, “We look forward to showing how we are
investing in innovation, providing services that people want, and
engaging in robust and fair competition.”

Here are the investigations:

Federal Trade Commission: The FTC has already
investigated and fined Facebook for its privacy
practices, but it also started its own antitrust investigation into
the company in June.

The FTC also has the authority to investigate Amazon for
possible antitrust violations.

Department of Justice: The DOJ is conducting a
sweeping review of the power and dominance of Big Tech,
which will likely include Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
The Wall Street Journal reported the DOJ
might explore different tech practices or legal theories than the
FTC in its probe of Amazon and Facebook.

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Congress: The House of Representatives is
conducting an investigation into Google, Facebook, Amazon and
Apple, and results of the investigation may inform changes in
antitrust laws that would make it easier to break up these
companies.

States Attorneys General: Eight states and
Washington, D.C., are investigating Facebook, while a larger group
of attorneys general from 48 states (plus Puerto Rico and
Washington, D.C.) announced Monday they are investigating Google,
focusing on whether it holds too much power in the advertising
industry.

California, where Google is based, and Alabama are the only
states that haven’t signed on to the probe. The California AG
office said in a statement it hasn’t decided whether to join the
investigation. Alabama’s office did not immediately respond to a
request for comment from Forbes